News

Recent National Council Article Submission:

I think I speak for all brothers at the Nu Chapter of Delta Epsilon Psi when I say that we truly had an excellent year.

Our perhaps most significant achievement involves school-wide recognition by the entire University of Miami community. A new grading system for Greek organizations, the Greek Community Standards, was established by the University of Miami’s Association of Greek Letter Organizations at the beginning of this year. In addition to ensuring that fraternities and sororities were meeting certain threshold, the standards system provides a concrete system to compare Greek organizations, using primarily a classic grading scale. After having a busy and long year, we are incredibly proud to announce that the Nu Chapter of Delta Epsilon Psi, recognized with 38 out of a possible 39 points, is currently the BEST GREEK ORGANIZATION at the UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI. No other organization in any of the four councils at UM—the Intrafraternity Council, the Panhellenic Council, the National PanHellenic Council, and the Multiethnic Greek Council—received as high of a grade as DEPsi, and no other MGC organization received an “A.”

A lot of our chapter’s success can be attributed to the extensive number of events Nu Chapter both hosted and participated in. We hosted our signature “Sugar Spike Off” volleyball tournament—as well as a “Bone Marrow Drive”—in the Fall, and we even hosted our first “Drench a Delta” fundraiser before winter break. And in the Spring, in addition to putting on another “Bone Marrow Drive” (this time in collaboration with the football team), we hosted a Dodging Diabetes dodgeball tournament and a Panhellenic Stroll-Off that was co-programmed with Sigma Lambda Beta.

In addition, our brothers completed, on average, over 25 hours of community service each semester. We show our love and appreciation for the community around us through significant involvement in various on and off-campus service events, and we believe that so much can be learned from the various experiences that our brothers have.

We also believe that a large part of our successes and recognitions is due to our active role in promoting and fostering a sense of community at the University of Miami, accomplished especially by collaborating with other organizations—both Greek and non-Greek.

Last year, for example, we hosted our first annual “Caking with DEPsi and Panhellenic” event, where we invited all sororities out to the Panhellenic Patio on a weeknight to enjoy some cake with our brothers. To expand upon our efforts, when organizing our annual philanthropy volleyball event last semester, “Sugar Spike Off,” we invited every sorority and fraternity on campus—in MGC, NPHC, Panhellenic, and IFC—to participate. Those invitations carried over to our events in the following weeks; both our Bone Marrow Drive and “Drench a Delta” programs brought out students involved in Greek Life from a wide variety of sororities and fraternities and even resulted in initiating contact with Greek leaders who, up until that point, we had never been in contact with. We used such relationships to further our reach into “uncharted” Greek territory as we planned “Dodging Diabetes” and “Panhellenic Stroll Off,” our two Spring events that ended up having great turnout from more than just Panhellenic organizations.

But our efforts to encourage positive community-like partnerships did not stop at inviting fraternities and sororities to participate in our events. We reached out to them and inquired about participating in their events as well, and we can honestly claim to have expanded our involvement with other organizations significantly. Whether it was brothers making donations to each respective fraternity or sorority at the time of their events or even forming teams for competitions, Delta Epsilon Psi truly actively participated this past year.

And perhaps the biggest opportunity for us to foster a sense of partnership was Greek Week 2014. Paired with both Alpha Delta Pi and Sigma Alpha Epsilon, we gave the Week our all and pushed to emphasize that, even though we were divided up and competing, our overall mission was to bring everyone together for United Cerebral Palsy—the overall philanthropy of Greek Week—and show our passion for making the world a better place.

At the end of the day, we know from the core of our beliefs that a community is only a community when people come together and join forces. And such values show in whatever we do as a fraternity—because not only do we simply close emails with the standard “In Greek Unity,” but we also work everyday to ensure that, in reality, Greek Life here at the University of Miami is truly united.

We believe that this fostering serves a bigger purpose: through everything we do, the Nu Chapter of Delta Epsilon Psi displays a positive image of not only our Brothers, but also of the entire Greek Life community here at the University of Miami. Through collaboration with other organizations, our involvement this year took a turn for the best and increased dramatically.

We have worked to become involved in various Greek events and activities, working, for example, with the sisters of Lambda Theta Alpha to participate in their Walk for Myeloma and Date Auction as well. We have also reached out to other non-Greek orgs in an effort to diversify our participation; through this, we have had Brothers been involved with events like Gandhi Day, Fun Day, and other service and non-service events.

As a part of our Sugar Spike Off event last semester, we also reached out to various organizations off campus and inquired about opportunities to collaborate. Notably, the Fresh Market in Coconut Grove was one of our sponsors and worked with us to ensure that our event was a success. It was those types of partnerships that proved crucial to hosting successful events, and we recognize the importance of such relationships to both our fraternity and the surrounding communities.

The Nu Chapter of Delta Epsilon Psi will never fail to demonstrate excellence. We are proud of how far we have come—we are truly appreciative of the fact that the passion and dedication we have for this fraternity was recognized this year. But with that, we also know that we can become even better as a chapter. It is therefore with increased ambition and determination to better ourselves that we look forward to the years to come.